Lady Bloodfight (2016)

An American woman Jane looks at her new unemployment status as an opportunity to do something she always wanted to do… to look for his father whom competed the Kumite and went missing in Hong Kong when she was a young girl. In order to find out what happened to her father she needs to be the first American woman to compete in the Kumite. Jane met Shu – a martial arts master, who saves her and agreeing to train Jane for this year’s Kumite, although they only have 3 months to prepare. Meanwhile across town, Shu’s rival Wai has found her student too, a young would be thief named Ling (Jenny Wu).

There is quite a bit of talent involved in Lady Bloodfight, including Bey Logan as a writer and producer and Chris Nahon as the director (who provided one of the best westernized martial arts films of the modern era with Kiss of the Dragon, and anime adaptions with Blood: The Last Vampire), but what truly seems to be the biggest surprise in the entire film is Amy Johnston and the slew of stuntwomen and men turned actors that anchor the film’s appeal and cinematic charisma.

While cornered into a predictable protagonist role that essentially launched Jean-Claude Van Damme’s career just a handful of decades ago, Amy Johnston holds her own and delivers a nicely resonating emotional foundation to her obvious abilities to fight and hold the screen with her ass kicking fight work.